Mr. John Boyle:

Interestingly, I do not think that the Department keeps a record of substitutions because public health does not go into that space. Public health bases its determination on public health reasons. What if staff have to self-isolate and be absent for a number of days? I identified a school but I think it was actually 17 staff who self-isolated so it was seven special needs assistants, nine teachers and one school secretary. The school only closed for one day because of all of the work that had been done over the weekend to get the supply panel in the area to stand down its teacher appointments for other schools and prioritise this emergency. That case bears out my report that the supply panel while welcome needs to be available to all of the schools and be expanded in the new year.